[The National Immigration Forum is] the umbrella organization for high-immigration political advocacy, which works closely with sympathetic Republicans. But NIF is not like the conventional lobbying coalitions that exist on numerous issues. It was cofounded by the National Lawyers Guild in the 1980s, back when the Guild was a Soviet front group. The group's first head was Rick Swartz, a leftist attorney who cut his teeth advocating for Haitian illegal aliens and who, during a 1981 Senate hearing, likened the United States to Nazi Germany.

"Bibles, Badges and Business for Immigration Reform" ("BBB") describes itself as "a national network of faith, law enforcement and business leaders working together to educate and support members of Congress as they consider reforms to our immigration system".

A group of evangelical leaders have formed the "Evangelical Immigration Table" (evangelicalimmigrationtable.com) to support, among other things, legalizing millions of illegal aliens. A list of those involved is here.
Their policies are an example of false compassion: some might think their ideas would make things better, but they'd wind up making things worse for most people. They want a "bipartisan solution" that:

On April 26, 2012, the Cato Institute will be conducting an all-day conference ("Is Immigration Good for America?") supporting massive immigration. I urge anyone who'll be in the Washington DC area to attend with the goal of discrediting them as will be described below.

The National Foundation for American Policy has released a compendium of suggestions to increase skilled immigration [1]. The groups offering suggestions include the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the AILA, and Tamar Jacoby; see [2] for more.

From this comes some good news for a change:
The Department of Homeland Security notified 39 governors Friday that the fingerprint-sharing program did not need their approval to operate in their states, and said it had voided agreements they had signed to authorize their states' participation, according to a copy of the letter.

From this:
An anonymous group [note: using the name Concerned Citizens of the United States] says it quietly watched Hispanics in their neighborhoods, schools, churches and "public welfare buildings" to compile a list of 1,300 people it says are illegal immigrants living in Utah. The group sent the list to law enforcement agencies and news media demanding that those named "be deported immediately." ...It is not known who produced the list, although Gov. Gary Herbert has called for an investigation to see if the list was compiled by someone with access to state databases containing personal...

Roy Beck of Numbers USA attended yesterday's pro-illegal immigration march, and you can watch the reception he received on the video at peekURL.com/v41a4yc which is also attached right or below. On the video, persons dressed as mimes surrounded him as he attempted to speak to the camera and blew whistles at him in an attempt to shut him up. Not only that, but from their posting about the day's events (link):
After threatening Roy, the mimes were ordered by Park Police to remain between 7th and 14th streets. Then they huddled and one ran to Park Police claiming one of Roy's African American...

If "immigration equality" - the ability for same-sex (gay or lesbian) couples to have the same immigration privileges as straight couples - is important to you, then the article at this link about the Reform Immigration for America group not supporting "immigration equality" should be your first and last stop for the day. They aren't on your side.

Source: press release located here. See the first item in the history for the full text.
SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 1 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Tides (www.tides.org) hasawarded a total of $22,500 to the 2009 recipients of the JBL Awards forExcellence in Public Advocacy. Tides' JBL Awards honor policy activists andadvocates by recognizing work that demonstrates innovative approaches tosocial change and a deep commitment to the public interest.

Earlier today, Janet Napolitano of the Department of Homeland Security held a closed-door meeting with a group of what she calls "stakeholders" (dhs.gov/ynews/releases/pr_1250792978709.shtm) but was actually a vast pantheon (see below) of far-left, racial power, corrupt business, and in general loose borders groups all of which want some form of comprehensive immigration reform, aka amnesty. There were at least 98 participants in the meeting, and none of them represent your interests or the interests of the great majority of American citizens. Why exactly they'd hold the meeting isn't clear;...

A new group called "Reform Immigration For America" recently launched in order to push for comprehensive immigration reform, aka amnesty. They're a coalition of business, labor, and far-left/racial power groups; see their slick site here: reformimmigrationforamerica.org.

On January 12, 2006, the American Bar Association held a conference called "Fortress America: Comprehensive Immigration Reform" at the National Press Club in Washington DC in support of that "reform" and specifically in opposition to HR4437.

The anti-American DREAM Act was re-introduced yesterday in the House and the Senate. The bill is an amnesty for a potentially large number of younger illegal aliens, and it would allow those covered under the bill to take college discounts from U.S. citizens. In other words, because of this bill, some U.S. citizens will have their college educations taken away from them by former illegal aliens.
Considering that, it's incredibly easy to block the bill and discredit those who support it. The way to do that is to ask a politician who supports the bill the question at the link above, and then...

Randal Archibold of the New York Times offers "Report Questions an Immigration Program That Uses the Local Police" (link):
A government report questions the effectiveness of a federal program, long criticized by immigrant advocacy groups, that deputizes police officers as immigration agents.
The report, to be released Wednesday by the Government Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress, says the government has failed to determine how many of the thousands of people deported under the program were the kind of violent felons it was devised to root out...
As he later says, who...

The Asian American Justice Center runs the Rights Working Group, a coalition of over 250 leftwing groups, and they have a petition calling on Barack Obama to in effect not do immigration enforcement. They want a "moratorium" while the subject of raids and the like is "studied", but everyone knows what that means.

It was a meeting of the far-left illegal immigration-supporting All Stars earlier today as Cardinal Roger Mahony, Janet Murguia of the National Council of La Raza, Frank Sharry of America's Voice, John Wilhelm of the Unite Here union, and Ali Noorani of the National Immigration Forum joined on a conference call. From their press release (link), here's the "why":
The preeminent moral voice supporting just and comprehensive immigration reform joins the President of one of America's leading pro-immigrant unions, the head of the largest Latino civil rights organization, and national pro-reform...

In 2006, George W Bush tasked the USCIS with creating a Task Force on New Americans to spend a lot of time and effort looking into assimilation of immigrants and related topics. Now, they're released their final report, "Building an Americanization Movement for the Twenty-first Century" (summary link, PDF available in the sidebar at that page).
It's 65 pages, so a full treatment won't be offered. However:
1. Page 6 says:
The U.S. Census Bureau estimates that America will be a nation of minorities without a dominant racial or ethnic group by 2042. By mid-century, whites, 67 percent of the...

Freelance writer and Vanity Fair contributor Judy Bachrach offers a smear of Lou Dobbs in "Lou Doubts" (poder360.com/article_detail.php?id_article=549). It's yet another example of the illegal activity-supporting establishment trying to reduce his influence in order to profit from illegal activity in one way or another.

Massive immigration supporter Frank Sharry - formerly of the National Immigration Forum and now with America's Voice - stopped by FireDogLake earlier today for a chat with their readers: firedoglake.com/2008/05/04/fdl-welcomes-frank-sharry-of-americas-voice
While he answered questions from others, he failed to answer a few I posed despite the fact that few others asked him anything and he had over 20 minutes to think up a good response; more below.
He also gave what will hopefully turn out to be spectacularly bad advice:
On the one hand, I do think it will matter hugely if progressive forces...

Andres Oppenheimer of the Miami Herald - previously featured here for warning about a "Latino Intifada" unless we give millions of illegal aliens an amnesty - now offers "Five myths of anti-immigration talk", such as:
Myth No. 1: ''We are only against illegal immigration. Undocumented immigrants should get in line for visas.'' That's deceptive because you can't demand that people get into line when, for the most part, there is no line to get into... While the U.S. labor market is demanding 1.5 million mostly low-skilled immigrants a year -- and will demand many more in coming years, as the U....

Jason DeParle of the New York Times almost follows the money on Western Union, a company that makes almost a billion dollars per year off legal and illegal immigrants sending money home ("remittances"): link

From this:
Republican presidential hopeful John McCain on Thursday backed a scaled-down proposal that imposes strict rules to end illegal immigration but doesn't include a path to citizenship.
The move away from a comprehensive measure is an about-face for the Arizona senator, who had been a leading GOP champion of a bill that included a guest worker program and would have legalized many of the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants living in the U.S.

The unremarkable and as-could-be-expected-biased "Top GOP Hopefuls Keep Distance on Immigration" by Michael Shear discusses how John McCain, Mitt Romney, and Rudy Giuliani are backing off from "comprehensive immigration reform", aka amnesty.
However, it does contain this:
[Frank Sharry, executive director of the National Immigration Forum] remembers watching in

From this:
A CBS News producer was fired and the network apologized after last night's Katie Couric broadcast was found to be plagiarized from The Wall Street Journal and other sources.
The complete broadcast was removed from the CBS Web site and an editor's note was posted saying the segments should have credited to Jeffrey Zaslow of the Journal, Nancy Pelosi's office, George Bush's office, the CFR, ANSWER, Code Pink for Peace, the National Lawyers Guild, the National Immigration Fo

From this:
Several synod bishops of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) urged their members of Congress and key congressional staff March 22 to enact comprehensive immigration reform in 2007 that is "humane and for the common good."
...Key components that the bishops believe help to fulfill these principles include: elimination of the family visa backlogs; fair and humane enforcement provisions and the elimination of the unnecessary detention of families and children; earned legalization of the n

U.S. News has uploaded a PowerPoint presentation the White House has regarding their new illegal alien amnesty scheme in this PDF file. Even by the abysmally low standard of other Bush administration plans, this is idiotic. Most of the provisions in there would not appeal to even the most cravenly corrupt Democrat, so this isn't a good bargaining ploy. And, it allows the far-left illegal immigration supporters (see the Kevin Appleby quote below) and racial power groups to portray the Bush administration as a bunch of meanies, which doesn't seem to square with their supposed play for the "...

The Gutierrez-Flake amnesty scheme contains a "touchback" provision. Current illegal aliens who pass a screening and meet other requirements would be given a legal worker permit immediately. Then:
Illegal immigrants would within the next six years have to leave the United States for either Mexico or Canada, go to a processing center and re-enter the U.S. legally. Lawmakers were vague about exactly how long they would have to stay outside the country under what is being called the touchback provision. But staff members said they could stay as little as one day.
Despite what is clearly a sham...

The American Civil Liberties Union - a group indirectly linked to the Mexican government - has a nit with the Flake-Gutierrez amnesty [1]:
"Drafting comprehensive immigration reform is no easy task... [praise some provisions] ...Sadly, Title III of the bill attacks privacy by creating a national ID card. Creating a national ID card under the guise of a 'secured' Social Security card is not only financially and logistically daunting, it creates the possibility that we will become a society where 'your papers' will need to be presented at every turn. We urge Congress to strike this provision...

"We Are America" debates in Chicago/Socialist Worker/Sam Jordan/[[June 9, 2006]]/ link
Describes a [[June 4, 2006]] meeting of that the We Are America Alliance in Chicago.
Reports that those attending included:

On Wednesday, Sen. Barack Obama introduced the "Citizenship Promotion Act of 2007". This important story was overshadowed by the most likely unimportant story about his stock holdings [1]. The CPA could be described as a "New Democrats Initiative/Funding Source for Possibly Foreign-Linked Pro-Illegal Immigration Groups" bill, and perhaps some reporters should have asked Obama and his co-horts about that.

Mike Madden of Gannett News has a brief round-up of the money that was spent lobbying for and against immigration "reform" in 2005 and the first part of 2006 here.
According to a Gannett study, $3.3 million was spent in that period, and most of that was the pro side. They also mention the Center for Responsive Politics. Their raw data is here, but it looks like some of the dollar figures might include all lobbying an organization does, not just that related to immigration.
A sidebar shows some of those lobbying for and against the Senate amnesty. On the against side were NumbersUSA,...

From this we learn of yet another coalition in favor of massive immigration, this one calling itself the "Alliance for Immigration Reform 2007". Its members include:
* R. Bruce Josten, executive vice president, U.S.